Return to Aether

To Aether

Sixteen twelvemonths... True, sixteen was the age one had to be in order to be considered eligible for ascending to a throne, but that did not change the fact that even with his father having prepared him for the occasion, he had still not yet felt ready. He had been scared and although he was an adult, Falco felt as a child would have been thrust into such a situation... Unready.

Still, he had not been alone. He had Rowena by his side, as well as his materfamilias Ida to aid them both.

Childhood had been pleasant. Besides lessons, Falco had plenty of time to be a child, play with friends, go forth and explore the island, it had been a happy time and Rowena's had not been much different.

As happy as their childhood could have been, it did not change the fact that the great, looming shadow of Taurus Minor had ever been present at the palace. After the death of his paterfamilias Taurus Major, he ascended to the position of High Priest of the Earth Bull, donning the golden bull mask.

How long ago had that been? If only either the Son of Tigris or the Daughter of Alfred could remember. They could not remember how Taurus looked under the mask, for never was he seen without it on. Still, he had to remove it in order to eat and drink, yet the fact remained neither could remember the High Priest of the Earth Bull's countenance, said to be ugly and resembling that of a bovine.

There had been times in their childhood when the light had been low that Falco and Rowena had mistaken Taurus for something fantastic. They had thought him a half-bull, half-human monster, as if bull and woman had come together to create some sort of abomination. It was perfectly impossible of course. Such things did not happen any more than dogs and cats produced offspring or horses and cows.

No doubt that was the view of many who saw a High Priest of the Earth Bull in the low light when he wore his mask. No doubt that the Hyperionite soldiers, who wore bull-headed helmets of bronze and some of whom had even accompanied Taurus in his departure from Hyperion, had been mistaken for such fantastically impossible monstrosities.

That was the way of things. Cunning beasts came to be viewed as invulnerable. Great forts receiving reinforcements, enormous swamps and gangs of bandits with the serpent as their emblem came to be viewed as nine-headed serpents. Bandit leaders who totem was the bull came to be viewed as fire-breathing bulls. Even if something was perfectly impossible, even if something made absolutely no sense, that was the way things became.

Priests and priestesses, they who were called the children of gods, were viewed as demigods, even though there was no doubt that the individuals were fully mortal. Falco and Rowena both had people claiming the Storm Falcon was their father. For Falco, it had been the priesthood of that deity when a falcon had taken shelter in his parent's bedchamber during a storm on the day of his birth. For Rowena, it had been the claims of a madwoman... The claims of her mother. One would have to be mad to believe that someone was the child of a divinity.

As High Priest of the Earth Bull, Taurus was not considered a child of the deity. Rather he was considered the twin and body of the Earth Bull and so the deity was considered Taurus' twin and shadow. Wherefore was not known. That simply was the way of things and only an insane person would have truly believed Taurus to be the twin and body of the Earth Bull.

But did monarchs granted divine honours after death truly become deities? That there was an afterlife there was no doubt, only fools believed otherwise, but could a mere mortal become a deity after passing? No one could be certain. True, monarchs were gods on earth, but did they continue to be gods after being death when they were granted such honours? Falco had prayed at the Fane of Monarchs Past as had Rowena and Achilles, but were the prayers heard? The Earth Bull and the Storm Falcon Falco and had been seen, but had any long-deceased monarch ever appeared before mortals as a god?